1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a touch pad device, and more particularly, to a touch pad device having an illumination function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, an input device called a touch panel or a touch pad, which performs an input operation by detecting a proximity operation performed by an operating body such as a finger of an operator or a touch pen, is used in a portable device such as a portable phone or a tablet type terminal, or an in-vehicle device such as a navigation device. In order to enhance designability or visiblility, the input device may use illumination. However, there may be a case where it is difficult to allow a light source to directly illuminate a portion to be illuminated due to the constraints of the structure of the device or the like.
A portable device 900 provided with a touch panel described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-239900 (Related Art Example 1) includes, as illustrated in FIG. 5, illumination keys 908 provided outside a display area 905a of a liquid crystal display (LCD) 905 within an operable range of the touch panel. On the main substrate disposed on the rear side of the LCD 905, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) 910 are mounted on the outside of the illumination keys 908 when viewed from the front. In addition, on the front surface side of the LEDs 910, a light guiding body 911 which guides light from the LEDs 910 to the illumination keys 908 is provided. A technique of allowing the LEDs 910 which are light sources to illuminate positions in different directions than the direction of light by using the light guiding body 911 is disclosed.
However, in the example of the related art described above, the light guiding body has to be used for illumination, and thus the number of components is increased. Therefore, there is a problem in that there is concern that the number of assembly processes and costs due to the light guiding body may be increased.